Catholibertarian

Teresa and I want to wish all the readers of our blogs a very merry Christmas, and get this out to you before the day is over.  We are very grateful for our readers and fellow bloggers (especially fellow conservative bloggers), and we love all the positive feedback our work here generates.

We know you have heard it all before –  that True Meaning of Christmas stuff – but we keep hearing it because it bears repeating: the most important Christmas gift of all was Christ Himself, God’s ultimate gift to the world, His only Son.  I would like to add one more point, one often neglected.  I have gotten the impression over the years from those who reflect on the true meaning of Christmas think that it is about the moment when God became Incarnate, and that therefore the beginning of the Incarnation is what we are celebrating.  To those who are of that mind-set, it is worthwhile to remind you: the birth of Christ is not the beginning of the Incarnation.  The moment God became incarnate and took on human nature was celebrated by Catholics exactly nine months ago, and will celebrated again exactly three months from today: The Feast of the Annunciation!

Christ’s birth was not the beginning of His life as a man, a human being.    Human life begins at conception.  The nativity was the first moment that the Christ event became public.  It was the moment that God entered the larger human community as a fellow member.  Prior to that, throughout the pregnancy of the Blessed Mother, the Incarnation involved no one else as much as it involved the Virgin Mary.  God gave Christ to Mary first, and then, through Mary, to the rest of the world.  Or to put it another way, Our Lord Jesus is Himself the first Christmas gift which was given to us by God and the Blessed Virgin Mary, God’s Holy Mother.

Sic Deus Dilexit Mundum